Even in a gut-wrenching loss to the defending champions, the Philadelphia 76ers showed plenty of positives Saturday night. Perhaps the most obvious positive was Ben Simmons, who shredded the league’s most diverse defensive team for 23 points and 12 assists on 11-15 shooting.
Simmons is just 15 games into his career, yet has virtually ensured his spot in the All-Star game at his current pace. He’s outperforming arguably any rookie we’ve ever seen, and has played well enough to draw comparisons to Magic Johnson — and they aren’t all that absured.
Those are high standards to set, but Simmons has shown he can handle them.